Receive a Reprieve and Be a Pioneer

It�s been a cold, wet and dreary week here in south central Indiana. This week�s theme at the kids� school is Pioneer Day. On Monday, Abby dressed as a pioneer, getting clothes from both a gal at Ann�s work and Grandma O. Abby enjoyed dressing up as a girl from the 1800�s, but didn�t understand the Laura Ingles references. After work on Monday, the girls went to the Dixon Dance Studio as the boys went home and worked outside. We mowed, pumped water off the pool cover and finished winterizing the house. Matt & I were pretty sore from the previous day of paint balling and both fell asleep early on the couch that night, watching Monday Night Football�

On Tuesday evening, Matt played in his final home game of the year against a very tough Brookville team. Matt played guard, tackle and tight end throughout the game. He had several outstanding blocks and the move in position has brought back a little fire in his belly. He was much more aggressive and even flattened a couple players that night. It was bitter cold out there and few parents braved the elements as the crowd was quite sparse on that cold October night. The Pirates were in control most of the game and were driving late in the fourth quarter, up by 2 points. On the 8th or 9th play of that drive, they fumbled the ball. The Wildcats ran it back about 50 yards and eventually scored on a fourth and goal at the 1�very heartbreaking and demoralizing for our young men.

On Wednesday, Abby brought home her sachet, soap and candles she made at Pioneer Day. We told her to put the sachet in her undies drawer! 😛 She was so proud of her creations! 🙂 That night, I was again sore and tired from the previous day at work, where we performed our annual cleaning day of the garage. It took us all day, but it looks great! I can�t wait to show Dennis� Luke stayed the night with his good buddy, Oakley (our sitter�s youngest child), so we didn�t see him from the time we dropped him off Wednesday morning before work until after work on Thursday. He had a blast but was ready to come home the next night. Wednesday night, Abby wasn�t feeling real well. She had fallen asleep after school, at Grandma�s house. She came home and slept most of the night, getting up only to grab a little chicken soup and going back to bed. She was fine the next day, so I don�t know what was up with that� Ann & Matt went to Rushville that evening to meet our friends Natalie & Mike to watch Matt�s best friend (Brayton) play football. It was again freezing out there, and there was little offense that night. The game ended tied, 6-6. Our paint ball pictures were finally posted from our weekend adventure on the Whitewater Paintball Adventures site. You can view all the pictures from that day HERE. Here are the ones of Matt & I�

On Thursday, the kids were off for Fall Break. Matt stayed home and Abby went over to Brandy�s house for the day (I was hoping to see Lukey, but he was still in bed). That night, I began going through one of the boxes of pictures Mom gave me last year. It was full of great memories. All told, of the tens of thousands of photos in just that one box (I believe there are either four or five!); I culled 600 to include in our Waybac feature, here on the Scheu Family Blog! 🙂 We had our first frost advisory of the season that night�and the first of three straight for us this week. 🙁 I also had a little side job that night, as I repaired my co-worker�s PC. All told, it was about a 10 hour job. If I could do little computer side jobs like this each week, it would be a nice supplement to our income! We also received Matt’s Nintendo Wii back today. …turns out the mother board had gone bad in it. So, Matt got it back in to our network, updated it and redownloaded the games we had previously bought. We played a little Mario Kart and Super Mario Brothers (I love that darn game!). However, when Matt went to put his Star Wars disc in, it made an awful noise and wouldn’t play it nor eject it! So, I called Nintendo back and they said to send it back in again. So, poor Matt got to play his Wii for about an hour before having to box it right back up again. The gal at Nintendo was really cool and they are taking care of us with upgraded technicians to repair it and free, upgraded shipping. Matt was pretty disappointed, but he kept himself composed (pretty good for a teenager!).
On Friday, Ann and the girls at her work decided to close the office for the day. She and the kids worked pretty hard around the house, cleaning up areas that hadn�t been touched since we moved in here! Molly, that little stinker, chewed up one of my pieces of foam insulation that covers the crawl space vents. There are little pink pieces of foam all over the back yard. I need to cut a new piece and cover that vent before it gets too cold and our pipes freeze. That night, we had family night. We ordered pizzas from Papa John�s, played Yahtzee (Abby dominated this time!) and watched Saw III. �well the little ones went to bed to watch some Halloween movie on the Disney Channel and Ann slept on the couch, so it was just Matt & I�but it was pretty cool�twisted�but cool.

On Saturday, we finally saw the sunshine! As Luke & I finally finished pumping water from the pool cover, I began scanning in the selected photos to our PC. It took me all day and evening and even into Sunday morning before finally finishing. There are some really good ones that should be a topic of several conversations� I took the kids to the YMCA to go swimming in the afternoon. We swam for a couple hours and had fun playing Frisbee and pretty much having the run of the place. Afterwards, I took the kids to McDonald�s for shakes and to get MaryAnn & Sandy pumpkin pies. However, when I went to pay; I noticed that someone had stolen $20 from my wallet while we were swimming! I was pissed�well, shocked at first, then in denial, then sad�then mad as hell – most of the steps of grief and loss – while in the McDonald�s drive through lane� I was more upset with myself that I let that happen than I was at the kid who did it. We have a pretty good idea of who it was, but no proof; so we just called and reported the incident. I will be sure to either leave my goodies in the car or bring a padlock next time. That night, Mom & Gigi came over to play euchre. Sandy brought a yummy dip she made from her new Velveeta cook book. She called it spicy cheeseburger dip. It didn�t last much longer than the first game! 😛 After Ann & I shellacked them the first two games, they finally woke up and tied the series up 2 games apiece. Although the old timers were tired, they toughed it out and stayed to play the �rubber match� game. It was nip and tuck as the lead was exchanged four times, but Ann & I prevailed, 10-8 to win the series 3-2.

On Sunday we took it easy, bumming around the house and watching football. I can�t believe this is the 20th season of the Simpsons�and my favorite episode each year is the Treehouse of Horror one – which is on tonight. It was cool to see the Boilers win yesterday and we enjoyed watching our favorite Purdue alum (Drew Brees) have a brilliant day for the Saints. Now Kyle Orton needs to win for the Broncos on Monday night to make it a perfect trifecta for PU QB�s this week!

As promised, we have TONS of Waybac photos to feature over this long, cold winter; so let�s get to it, shall we�I�ll try and do about 10 each week.
Leading off this time, we an old one of my Grandpaw Brown. This was in a special, protected envelope. I assume this was taken at the Lafayette police station. The date on the back is January 28, 1958. I have no idea who else is in the picture with him, but I thought it was a pretty cool one.

Next, we�ll move in to the 70�s. The first one here is Mom & I, in Grandmaw & Grandpaw�s dining room. I was 5 � years old. The date on the back says Aug. 15, 1974. The second one is my Great Grandma & Great Grandpa Morgan on August 24, 1978. I *think* this one may have been taken at their home in Lebanon.

The next stop is LaPorte in the 80�s. The first one is a great one that reads �Roberta??? on the back, from the summer of �83 in our kitchen at the Rockwood home. The next one is a picture that appeared in the paper. Dad was buying meat for Bernacchi�s at the time. This was the 4-H winner at the LaPorte County Fair on 8.10.85. He is thrilled. The third one is from 2 months later, for Rob�s birthday at our house. Seated next to him is my friend Julie. Looks like some of Rob�s seasonal school crafts made it home and in to our front window! The final one, I would estimate about 1989-ish�Mom & Peanuts in the living room on Rockwood St.

Wrapping up this week�s feature, we finish in the nineties. The first one is Rob�s school picture from 8th grade (in Rossville?). He was 13 years old in 1993. The second one is Rob & I on the evening of 9/23/95. This was at the reception, in the basement of St. Bartholomew church. That was a great night�or so the video shows! �I might have to get that old thing out and catch a few excerpts and post on here at some point in the future� Anyhow, the final one is from what I *think* is 1996, though I am unsure on the exact date. Dad has a huge gash on his head, where he fell in the water after attempting to get out of his boat after a long day on the water. 😉 If I remember the story correctly, he slipped off the dock, hit his head on the propeller and sank to the bottom. Rob, possibly the only sober one in the crowd, dove in and pulled him up � saving his life. I�m sure there�s more to the story that others may chime in on�but the next year, a jumbo-sized print of this very picture was plastered on the elevator at the Sand Pebble condo for all to see!! 🙂 Somehow, I�m sure George was at the root of that occurrence�

Well, that�s it for this edition. Thanks as always for catching up with the Scheu family and we�ll see ya next time. Until then, have a good one.
Later, Scheu